On Tuesday, media publication, Fast Company fell prey to hackers who sent extremely offensive push notifications across Apple News. The company released a statement clarifying that its “content management system” was compromised by the hackers following which the “obscene and racist” push notifications were sent. The company also added that “the messages are vile and are not in line with the content and ethos of Fast Company.”
Fast Company’s official statement regarding Tuesday evening’s website hack. pic.twitter.com/XeS9PEpbDG
— Fast Company (@FastCompany) September 28, 2022
Read along to know more.
The What and How
Hackers breaching internal systems of companies is not something new. While the growth of technology is indeed beneficial, it also opens several doors for those with vile and evil intentions to exploit the same. The Fast Company hacking incident is a good example of that.
The company also stated that a similar breach had happened on Sunday resulting in similar offensive and obscene language being placed on the website. They suspect that the present hack is also associated with that. On Tuesday, following the breach, the company decided to shut down the website. The website still remains closed as the company is investigating the matters and the cause of the breach.
The company expressed its regret to the public over the offensive language that appeared on its platforms and across Apple news, “Fast Company regrets that such abhorrent language appeared on our platforms and in Apple News, and we apologize to anyone who saw it before it was taken down.”
Apple News also came forward and addressed the issue at hand, and informed the users that it has temporarily taken down Fast Company from its platform in response to the breach.
An incredibly offensive alert was sent by Fast Company, which has been hacked. Apple News has disabled their channel.
— Apple News (@AppleNews) September 28, 2022
Before Fast Company shut down its website, the hacker managed to post an article claiming that the company had been using “ridiculously easy” default passwords for its administrator account. The hackers referred to themselves as “Thrax.” Reports from TechCrunch state that the hacker was able to gain access to “a bunch of sensitive information, including authentication tokens, Apple News API Keys, and Amazon Simple Email Service tokens, allowing the hacker to send emails using any @fastcompany.com email.”
